Reflections on Dissections: S5E19 — “DUCKWORTH”
How two Black men reversed a generational curse
< Previous: S5E18 — “DUCKWORTH.”
This post is a companion to Dissect Podcast Season 5 Episode 19
In our last post, we discussed the track “GOD.” and noted how Kenny seemed to express the feeling of being filled with the Holy Spirit. After receiving God’s Spirit as the greatest treasure in his heart, Kenny became convinced that his relationship with God makes him rich and famous just like Abraham, the grandfather of Israel and father of many nations. We also discussed how the entire biblical narrative is predicated on a father teaching his children to keep God’s commandments by following the way of justice and righteousness.
However, as we see throughout the narrative of DAMN., following the way of justice and righteousness is not easy. In particular, on “YAH.”, we heard how Kung Fu Kenny decided to follow his own intuition even though he knew that he was an Israelite descendant of Abraham and knew that God walks the earth. Kenny did eventually turn back to following God’s commandments but not without a back-and forth struggle. After engaging in this back-and-forth struggle over the last 12 tracks, Kenny seems to have come to a pivotal conclusion.
It was always me vs the world
Until I found it’s me vs me
Just like “BLOOD.” — the first track on DAMN. — , “DUCKWORTH.” — the final track on DAMN. — opens with an intro sung by Bekon. Recall that on “BLOOD.”, Bekon introduced the central dichotomy of the album: “Is it wickedness or is it weakness? You decide. Are we gonna live or die.” Here on “DUCKWORTH.” we get another dichotomy which implicitly presents two contrasting mindsets about how those who have been historically oppressed can find a better life for themselves.
The first mindset assumes that those who have been oppressed should adopt a “me versus the world” attitude. In the world of hip hop, this mindset was best expressed by the title track of 2Pac’s album Me Against the World, which released in March of 1995 when Kendrick was 8 years old.
The question is will I live, no one in the world loves me
I’m headed for danger, don’t trust strangers
Put one in the chamber whenever I’m feelin’ this anger
Don’t wanna make excuses
’Cause this is how it is, what’s the use?
Unless we’re shootin’, no one notices the youthIt’s just me against the world, baby
I got nothin’ to lose
It’s just me against the world- 2Pac from “Me Against the World”
These lines from the first verse of “Me Against the World” reveal how 2Pac resigned himself to the belief that no in the world loved him. Moreover, 2Pac’s anger and inability to trust anyone led 2Pac to arm himself for a war against the world.
Given the spiritual connection between 2Pac and Kendrick that we heard about at the end of To Pimp a Butterfly, it’s not surprising that Kung Fu Kenny seemed to have adopted the “me vs the world” mindset early on in life. We also see evidence of the “me vs the world” mindset early on in the narrative of DAMN. Most notably, on the track “FEEL.” Kenny rapped
I feel like this gotta be the feelin’ where ‘Pac was
The feelin’ of an apocalypse happenin’
But nothin’ is awkward, the feelin’ won’t prosper
The feelin’ is toxic, I feel like I’m boxin’ demons
Monsters, false prophets schemin’
Sponsors, industry promises
Niggas, bitches, honkies, crackers, Compton
Church, religion, token blacks in bondage
Lawsuit visits, subpoena served in concert- from “FEEL.”
In this verse, Kenny references 2Pac by name before describing his feeling of being in a fist fight with Black people, White people, men, women, demons, Church and everything else in the world.
While these lines from “FEEL.” were spoken from the “me vs the world” mindset, Kenny’s emotional journey eventually led him to realize that his own tendencies towards wickedness posed the greatest threat to him finding a better life. This realization was most clearly expressed in the last verse of “FEAR.” where Kenny rapped.
I’m talkin’ fear, fear of losin’ creativity
I’m talkin’ fear, fear of missin’ out on you and me
I’m talkin’ fear, fear of losin’ loyalty from pride
’Cause my DNA won’t let me involve in the light of God
I’m talkin’ fear, fear that my humbleness is gone
I’m talkin’ fear, fear that love ain’t livin’ here no more
I’m talkin’ fear, fear that it’s wickedness or weakness
Fear, whatever it is, both is distinctive
Fear, what happens on Earth stays on Earth
And I can’t take these feelings with me, so hopefully, they disperse
Within fourteen tracks, carried out over wax
Searchin’ for resolutions until somebody get back- from “FEAR.”
By highlighting the inner struggle with his own tendencies and feelings at the end of “FEAR.”, Kenny implicitly recognizes that he will not find a better life by struggling against the world but rather by struggling against himself.
In addition to this lyrical development within the album, Kendrick also hinted at the “me vs me” mindset in the album visuals. Most notably, the bridge section of the music video for “LOYALTY.” contains an entire scene in which a version of Kendrick dressed in a white suit faces off against a version of Kendrick in a black suit. The struggle between the two Kendrick’s ends with the white suited Kendrick ordering the black suited Kendrick to be strangled to death.
In case we missed the lyrical and visual depictions of the “me vs me” struggle, Kendrick also spoke directly about this central theme of the album during an interview article with Rolling Stone. In that article, the interviewer asked Kendrick who he was talking to in the chorus of “HUMBLE.” when he said “Sit down. Be humble.” Kendrick responded by saying.
It’s the ego. When you look at the song titles on this album, these are all my emotions and all my self-expressions of who I am. That’s why I did a song like that, where I just don’t give a fuck, or I’m telling the listener, “You can’t fuck with me.” But ultimately, I’m looking in the mirror.
- Kendrick Lamar from “Kendrick Lamar: The Rolling Stone Interview”
When one listens to “HUMBLE.” knowing that Kung Fu Kenny is talking to himself, we get the idea that each one of us has dichotomous parts of our persona that are opposed to each other. This idea of a person having two dichotomous parts that are opposed to each other is an idea that Jesus’s messenger, Paul wrote about in his letter to the Church in Rome.
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
- Romans 7:14–25
In this passage, Paul discusses the internal war between the part of him that wants to do good by following God’s Law — aka God’s commandments — and the part of him that wants to do evil. Paul uses the term “spirit” to refer to the part that wants to do good and uses the term “flesh” to refer to the part that wants to do evil. Fittingly, these are the exact same terms which Kenny uses in the opening verse of “PRIDE.” where he rapped.
Hell-raising, wheel-chasing, new worldly possessions
Flesh-making, spirit-breaking, which one would you lessen?
The better part, the human heart, you love ’em or dissect ‘em- from “PRIDE.”
Similar to the way in which the verses on “PRIDE.” detailed Kenny’s inability to live up to God’s standard of perfection, Paul’s letter to the Romans describes how “the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” Since Paul is unable to do the things that he truly wants to do, Paul considers himself to be enslaved to sin. This state of being enslaved to sin mirrors the Deuteronomy 28 curse of God allowing the Israelites to be sold into slavery as we saw during our discussion of “FEAR.”
The idea of God allowing his people to be enslaved by wickedness is also something that Paul talks about earlier in the letter to the Romans. In particular, Paul says that throughout history when people rejected the one true God and worshiped other gods, “God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, “God gave them over to degrading passions,” and “God gave them up to an unfit mind” (see Romans 1:24,26,28). Fittingly, the narrative of DAMN.also shows how God gave Kenny over to lusts, passions, and an unfit mind.
On the track “LUST.”, we heard Kenny being given over to a demonic spirit of lust. On the track “FEAR.” we heard Cousin Carl explain that Kenny had been given over to insanity and a confused mind. Meanwhile, the entire album seems to be centered around Kenny’s experience of being given over to degrading passions. That’s because the English word “passion” and the underlying Greek word “pathos” originally referred to “a feeling from which the mind suffers.” Hence, beginning with the track “FEEL.”, DAMN. has been an extensive depiction of God giving Kung Fu Kenny over to his “passions,” the feelings that cause his mind to suffer.
It was not until the track “FEAR.” when Kenny asked “Why God, why God do I gotta suffer?” that Kenny finally realized that his own feelings and passions were largely responsible for his suffering. This realization led Kenny to adopt the “me vs me” mindset as he began to disperse the feelings that had previously clouded his judgment — feelings that he can not take with him when he leaves this earth.
Just remember what happens on earth stays on earth
We gonna put it in reverse
After highlighting how Kenny’s mindset has shifted over the course of the album, we hear the voice of Kid Capri reminding us that “what happens on earth stays on earth.” Recall that it was Kid Capri who originally said this phrase during the intro of “ELEMENT.” This call back to an earlier part of the album then leads to Kid Capri announcing “we gonna put it in reverse.” This line highlights the reversal theme that we last noted during our analysis of “FEAR.” where we discussed how Kenny’s reversed vocals signaled the reversal of time back to when Kenny was 7 years old. Similarly, here in “DUCKWORTH.”, the line about putting it in reverse signals a reversal of time back to a time before Kendrick was born.
See, once upon a time inside the Nickerson Garden projects
The object was to process and digest poverty’s dialect
Adaptation inevitable: gun violence, crack spot
Federal policies raid buildings and drug professionals
Anthony was the oldest of seven
Well-respected, calm and collected
Laughin’ and jokin’ made life easier; hard times, mama on crack
A four-year-old tellin’ his nanny he needed her
His family history: pimpin’ and bangin’
He was meant to be dangerous, clocked him a grip and start slangin’
Fifteen, scrapin’ up his jeans with quarter pieces
Even got some head from a smoker last weekend
Dodged a policeman, workin’ for his big homie
Small-time hustler, graduated to a brick on him
Ten-thousand dollars out of a project housing, that’s on the daily
Seen his first mill’ twenty years old, had a couple of babies
In this early section of “DUCKWORTH.” Kendrick introduces us to a young Black man named Anthony. We learn that Anthony was born to a crack addict mother mother with a family history of criminal activity including gang banging and pimping prostitutes in Los Angeles low income, project housing. By the time he was fifteen, Anthony was following in his family’s footsteps by selling cocaine. Anthony quickly became a successful drug dealer, selling a million dollars worth of cocaine and fathering a couple of children. Anthony’s criminal activity led to several brush ups with law enforcement and also to a fateful visit to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
Crooked cops told Anthony he should kick it
He brushed ’em off and walked back to the Kentucky Fried Chicken
See, at this chicken spot, there was a light-skinned nigga that talked a lot
With a curly top and a gap in his teeth, he worked the window
His name was Ducky, he came from the streets, The Robert Taylor Homes
Southside Projects, Chiraq, the Terror Dome
Drove to California with a woman on him and five-hundred dollars
They had a son, hopin’ that he’d see college
Hustlin’ on the side with a nine-to-five to freak it
Cadillac Seville, he’d ride his son around on weekends
Three-piece special with his name on the shirt pocket
Cross the street from the projects, Anthony planned to rob it
Stuck up the place before, back in ‘84
Anthony’s visit to the Kentucky Fried Chicken gives a reason for Kendrick to introduce a young Black man named Ducky who worked in the drive-thru. We learn that Ducky was originally from the Southside Chicago projects which were infamous for gang warfare. In order to escape the cycle of gang violence, Ducky and his future wife moved to Southern California which led to Ducky becoming a father and working at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant across the street from the projects where Anthony lived. Working at a business across the street from these projects proved to be a hazardous occupation since Anthony had already robbed the restaurant in a previous year and planned to rob it again
Ducky was well-aware
They robbed the manager and shot a customer last year
He figured he’d get on these niggas’ good sides
Free chicken every time Anthony posted in line, two extra biscuits
Apparently, Ducky was not present for the first robbery but was aware that Anthony was the one who had robbed the restaurant. This awareness could have led Ducky to treat Anthony with hostility. However, Ducky instead decided to treat Anthony with undeserved kindness. Whenever Anthony came to order food, Ducky proactively gave Anthony free chicken and biscuits. Whether Ducky knew it or not, this act of showing kindness to a potential enemy exemplified Jesus’s teaching about how to deal with human enemies as summarized by Paul in his New Testament letter to the Church in Rome.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be proud in mind, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- Romans 12:14–21
In this passage, Paul instructed Jesus’s followers to transform curses into blessings by doing good to those who do evil. Doing good to those who do evil is itself an act of weakness since it implicitly requires a person to refrain from using their strength to violently oppose their enemies. To illustrate how Jesus’s followers should respond to their enemies,, Paul quotes a passage from Proverbs 25:21–22 which says that when person gives food and drink to their enemy when the enemy is hungry and thirsty, the enemy may be inspired to change their way of life. Fittingly, Anthony was able to experience such a change after Ducky repeatedly gave Anthony free chicken and biscuits.
Anthony liked him and then let him slide, they didn’t kill him
In fact, it look like they’re the last to survive, pay attention
That one decision changed both of they lives, one curse at a time
Reverse the manifest and good karma, and I’ll tell you why
Ducky’s past acts of kindness seemingly softened Anthony’s heart and convinced Anthony not to kill Ducky. According to Kendrick, Anthony’s decision to refrain from using violence against Ducky ended up changing both Anthony and Ducky’s lives. Moreover, by choosing weakness, these two men were able to reverse the curse that they lived under as Black men in urban America. Kendrick then goes on to recount the serendipitous moment when Anthony and Ducky began to recognize how their lives were now blessed.
You take two strangers and put ’em in random predicaments
Give ’em a soul, so they can make their own choices and live with it
Twenty years later, them same strangers, you make ’em meet again
Inside recording studios where they reapin’ their benefits
Then you start remindin’ them about that chicken incident
Whoever thought the greatest rapper would be from coincidence?
In the closing lines of the album Kendrick recounts the moment when Anthony and Ducky met again twenty years later at a recording studio. As it turns out, Ducky is Kendrick’s father, Kenny Duckworth. Meanwhile, Anthony is Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the founder and CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, the record label that first signed Kendrick. Anthony heard Kendrick’s debut mixtape, recognized Kendrick’s potential and signed Kendrick to a record deal when Kendrick was just 16 years old.
One day about a year after getting signed, Kendrick brought his father to the recording studio to meet Top Dawg. When Kendrick’s father walked into the studio and saw Top Dawg, he immediately recognized that this was the same Anthony that had robbed the Kentucky Fried Chicken twenty years earlier. Kendrick talked about this improbable coincidence during an interview with Zane Lowe.
My pops, when he walked in that room and he saw that Top Dawg was this guy, he flipped. Still to this day they laugh and they laugh and they trip out and and they tell the same story over and over to each other… It really makes you sit back and cherish the moment, you know? And I think that’s something that we all did playing that record. Like, man look where we at. We’re recording music for the world to hear and we taking care of families and we’re blessed.
- Kendrick Lamar from “Kendrick Lamar: ‘DAMN’ Interview | Apple Music”
As Kendrick noted in that interview, Anthony and Ducky are now able to experience blessings that would have been unimaginable twenty years earlier. At the same time, they recognize that they could have easily continued to live under a curse if Anthony had made a different decision.
Because if Anthony killed Ducky, Top Dawg could be servin’ life
While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight
In these final two lines of the album, Kendrick theorizes about what would have happened if Anthony had killed Ducky when Anthony robbed the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Anthony very easily could have been arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. With Anthony in prison, Kendrick would never have been signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and may never have become the greatest rapper of his generation. Moreover, without the guidance of his father, Kendrick could have succumbed to the destructive influences that affected so many of Kendrick’s peers in Compton. In fact, during his interview with Rolling Stone, Kendrick specifically highlighted the fact that growing up with a father distinguished him from his peers and potentially saved his life.
ROLLING STONE:
You’ve said you were one of the only ones among your friends with a dad around — and at the end of the new album you suggest that may have saved your life. How so?
KENDRICK LAMAR:
It taught me how to deal with [pauses] … emotions. Better than a lot of my peers. When you see kids doing things that the world calls harmful or a threat, it’s because they don’t know how to deal with their emotions. When you have a father in your life, you do something, he’ll look at you and say, “What the fuck is you doing?” Putting you in your place. Making you feel this small. That was a privilege for me. My peers, their mothers and grandmothers may have taught them the love and the care, but they couldn’t teach them that.
Throughout Kendrick’s catalogue we have seen examples of peers who lived under this curse of fatherlessness. Most notably, on the track “Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)” from Section.80, Kendrick rapped about a girl named Keisha who turned to prostitution for an exploitative pimp daddy after she grew up never knowing her father.
Uh, and Lord knows she’s beautiful
Lord knows the usuals leaving her body sore
She take the little change she make to fix her nail cuticles
Lipstick is suitable to make you fiend for more
She play Mr. Shakur, that’s her favorite rapper
Bumpin’ “Brenda’s Got a Baby” while a pervert yellin’ at her
And she capture features of a woman, but only seventeen
Then seven cars start honking
She start running like Flo-Jo, don’t care if they Joe Blow
If they got money to blow, a blow job is a sure go
And sure enough, don’t see a dime of dirty dollars
Just give it all to her daddy, but she don’t know her father- Kendrick Lamar from “Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)”
Ultimately, working as a prostitute on the violent streets of Compton led to Keisha being killed by a customer. Kendrick originally wrote “Keisha’s Song” as a warning for young girls in Compton, including his own 11 year old sister. However, on the track “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” from Kendrick’s following album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Kendrick acknowledged how that some people had questioned his intentions for telling Keisha’s story, including Keisha’s own sister.
You wrote a song about my sister on your tape
And called it Section.80
The message resembled “Brenda’s Got a Baby”
What’s crazy was I was hearin’ about it
But doubted your ignorance
How could you ever just put her on blast and shit?
Judgin’ her past and shit?
Well, it’s completely my future
Her nigga behind me right now askin’ for ass and shit
And I’ma need that forty dollars
Even if I got to fuck, suck and swallow
In the parking lot, Gonzales Park, I’m followed
By a married man, and father of three
My titties bounce on the cadence of his tinklin’ keys
Matter of fact, he my favorite ’cause he tip me with E’s
He got a cousin named David and I seen him last week
This is the life of another girl damaged by the system
These foster homes, I run away and never do miss ‘em
See, my hormones just run away and if I can get ‘em
Back to where they used to be, then I’ll probably be in the denim
Of a family gene that show women how to be woman- from “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”
In that verse, Kendrick rapped from the perspective of Keisha’s sister, who is angry at Kendrick for putting Keisha’s story out in the open for everyone to hear about. From Keisha’s sister’s perspective, Kendrick appears to be judging Keisha for turning to prostitution. This threat of judgement is particularly offensive to Keisha’s sister, because Keisha’s sister is actively engaged in prostitution and has no intention of stopping.
Even though, Keisha’s sister defends her choice of engaging in prostitution, she also explains the tragic circumstances that led her to this way of life. In particular, she notes that she ended up being put in a foster home, which — based on “Keisha’s Song” — seems to have happened after the two sisters grew up in a single parent home where they did not know their biological father and were abused by their mother’s boyfriend.
Kendrick apparently takes these accusations quite seriously as he responds directly to Keisha’s sister and explains his intentions during the track’s third verse.
And your sister’s situation was the one that pulled me
In a direction to speak on somethin’
That’s realer than the TV screen
By any means, wasn’t tryin’ to offend or come between
Her personal life, I was like “It need to be told”
Cursin’ the life of twenty generations after her soul
Exactly what’d happen if I ain’t continue rappin’
Or steady bein’ distracted by money, drugs and 4–5's- from “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”
In these heartfelt lines, Kendrick explains that he made “Keisha’s Song” because he was convinced that Keisha lived and died under a curse that would continue for twenty generations after her if no one did anything about it. Kendrick felt that it was his calling to share stories like Keisha’s so that the next generation of fatherless Black boys and girls could recognize that they are living under a curse that can be reversed into a blessing. In fact, this calling on Kendrick’s life was so significant that it became the core mission of Top Dawg Entertainment as Anthony Tiffith noted himself when he released an Instagram post to commemorate Kendrick’s final album on TDE.
The whole goal when we started this thing was to make music, make money, and make history. We did those things 10 times over and then some. TDE and its artists have provided a way to end generational curses that we were all personally born into.
- Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith from an Instagram post
As we hear from Anthony’s perspective in 2021, it is pretty remarkable that a man who could have killed Ducky and perpetuated the curse of fatherlessness ended up playing a pivotal role in reversing the curse in Kendrick’s life and in the lives of so many individuals who listened to Kendrick’s music. In doing so, Top Dawg became an Abraham-like father figure who has helped subsequent generations learn how to follow the way of the Lord toward justice and right relationships.
Given the blessings that came from Anthony and Ducky choosing weakness, it seems that the version of Kenny that we see throughout DAMN. is one who seems to still be living under the generational curse of fatherlessness. The end of “DUCKWORTH.” seems to hint at the idea that this alternate version of Kendrick is a result of an alternate reality in which Anthony killed Ducky.
This hint begins to unfold when we hear a gunshot following the lines “Because if Anthony killed Ducky, Top Dawg could be servin’ life / While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight.” We then hear segments from the album l played in reverse going backwards through the track order. When the reversed audio reaches the first track, “BLOOD.”, we hear Kendrick saying “So, I was takin’ a walk the other day…”
Fittingly, this line from “BLOOD.” is the beginning of the skit in which Kenny dies in a gunfight with a mysterious blind woman. The connection between Kenny getting shot to death at the end of the first track and the last track seems to support the interpretation that DAMN. is a narrative about what could have happened if Kendrick did not have his father around to teach him how to deal with emotions. At the same time the mirrored parallelism between the first and last track suggest that Kendrick has structured the entire album around the reversal motif. We’ll discuss this mirrored parallelism and how it relates to the concept of reversing curses into blessings in our final post.
Resources:
- “Sin” video by Bible Project
- “Slow to Anger” video by Bible Project
